At 19:09 she stood up, stretched wings and preened the underweathers a bit, rolled eggs and sat back on the eggs at 19:10. This seems quite relieving, doesn't it.. But why do we not see them together any more..

Jo UK wrote:
Renandeli, the only difference I can see between those two is that the tail feathers on number 2 seem to be darker than number one.
All else looks the same, to me.

The colour of the tail weathers can be the same, the sun is giving light from different angle,.. thought the 'sun shine' is soft, and there are no dark shadows.

But what I thought is that the number two is bigger than the nr 1. The lenght from the chest to the top of tail weathers is different - but: the eagles in the pictures may despite of that anyway be the one and same eagle - they are in different angle to the watcher, propably, though it is difficult to see.

I have no paint-program anymore and I am not able to draw lines and numbers on the pictures...

Why is there never two eagles present at same time.. I can't understand..

My reaction when I saw eagle #2 was that it was larger than eagle #1, but after studying them for a bit, I agree with Jo that they are the same bird. In the second picture, the tail feathers are extended back a bit differently, so the bird looks larger (longer). But - I opened both pictures in Photoshop, and superimposed one on the other, and the heads and front sections match exactly ... so I think it is the same bird.

I have not watched either Spotted Eagle nest enough to draw any conclusions, but it seems to me that it is always the female on the Estonian nest - perhaps this species does not share incubation duties, like the bald eagles do? More data is needed.

I wonder if the eggs survived the long absence earlier. I think Urmas said he thought they would not hatch. I have watched a couple of nests where the eagles were young, and they sat on the eggs long after the hatching due date.

As bociany has just reminded us, Urmas thought it unlikely, or impossible, for these eggs to hatch. So this adult bird just sits on the eggs from instinctive behaviour?
Miracles happen, though. Maybe this bird knows things about the eggs tht we don't know.

Bo, you are right, as well as Jo. I just wish there are two different LSEs!! Maybe they are too young, and this is their first try.. and it can happen as you said. It is only some kind of practise and learning the 'how to'..

Jo UK wrote:As bociany has just reminded us, Urmas thought it unlikely, or impossible, for these eggs to hatch. So this adult bird just sits on the eggs from instinctive behaviour?
Miracles happen, though. Maybe this bird knows things about the eggs tht we don't know.

Sometimes the birds sit on eggs that will not hatch- their hormones are telling them to incubate, but they can't tell that the egg is not viable. We will have to wait and see - collect data not guesses.

Jo UK wrote:As bociany has just reminded us, Urmas thought it unlikely, or impossible, for these eggs to hatch. So this adult bird just sits on the eggs from instinctive behaviour?
Miracles happen, though. Maybe this bird knows things about the eggs tht we don't know.

We never know as much as they by themselves..what their knowledge ever is, instincts, genes, practice, learning too, imitating etc. But people can help rare birds in many ways, we have other kind of knowlegde. But that's a different question.

bociany wrote:Sometimes the birds sit on eggs that will not hatch- their hormones are telling them to incubate, but they can't tell that the egg is not viable. We will have to wait and see - collect data not guesses.

I think it is important to follow this nesting, it gives information too what ever happens later, it will be different to a succesfull nesting without too big problems, but not less valuable or less usefull, ..